A Fresh Perspective on Afghanistan

by Martin Poehler

Events have moved swiftly since four airplanes crashed in America on 11
September, killing more than 3,000 people. An international coalition has
been forged by American President George Bush to capture or kill Osama bin
Laden and smash the terrorist al Qaida network suspected to have caused
the crashes. The coalition began bombing Afghanistan in early October to
destroy the Taliban regime. Despite international questioning of the
morality and appropriateness of this action, the bombing continued. A near
total victory was gained after six weeks of heavy bombing from the air,
and fighting by opposition Afghan troops on the ground. Now Hamid Karzai
has been selected as the new Afghan Prime Minister. He has from 22
December headed a broad-based coalition government in Afghanistan.

Remarkable Events

Many salient events come to our minds as we consider the past four
months. One of them, of course, is the horror of planes crashing into
buildings which caused the war on terrorism to begin. Another is the
re-alignment of the political landscape. Countries previously neutral or
hostile to the United States such as Russia and Pakistan have pledged
support to fight terrorism. Also of importance is the questioning
worldwide about what Islam really is. Does it stand for religious
tolerance, or for murderous confrontation? Yet another amazing event is
the relatively small amount of time it took to dethrone the ruling Taliban
government through American air power-a strategy many said would either
take long months or years to succeed, or would fail altogether. The
liberation of key towns, most poignantly the capital Kabul, let the world
see jubilant Afghans, glad as they shook off the yoke of the repressive
Taliban. This sparked much debate in both the Western and Middle Eastern
worlds, with some calling on the Middle Eastern regimes to become more
open both politically and economically.

What Will Happen Next?

As we consider these past remarkable events, we are all probably
wondering: After the Taliban is removed and a stable government starts to
rule in Afghanistan, what will happen next? Many people are saying the
things needed for the benefit of Afghans are "modernisation,
globalisation, democratisation, women's liberation, secular education,
rural electrification, lots of computers, and a market economy."
1 Of course, to bring all these about, there will be many
hurdles to clear. They include: the Afghans' suspicions of Western
governments' motives for introducing these changes; the threat of
instability within Afghanistan; the need for a new order of relationships
between regional nations like Syria and Saudi Arabia with Afghanistan, the
United States, and other nations; and the influence on the Arab world of
the difficult-to-solve Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A moment's reflection makes it clear that no man-not even any group of
men-knew these remarkable things were going to happen. It was all
obviously in someone else's hands. We don't know what will happen next,
but we can know that as was written many centuries ago, God accomplishes
all things according to the counsel of his will. 2 He has been
guiding events. The plane crashes in America, the war in Afghanistan, even
the social and political situations in the Middle East that contributed to
all these actions, were all allowed by God. Why did he allow them, you
probably ask? The reason is he respects our free wills. He allows us all
at the many different crossroads in our lives to choose which way we will
go. We can either freely choose to go the right way-God's way-or a
different way.

Events are Filtered for Our Good

In another place it has been written, "In him (God) we live and
move and have our being. "3 Every one of the 6 billion
people in the world, including you and I, are actually inside the God who
made the entire world and universe. That's how close and important we are
to him. He applies the same knowledge and skill with which he made the
universe to shield us from certain events happening, while letting other
events through to us, in all cases for our benefit. The reason? He greatly
cares about us. We said earlier that God accomplishes all things according
to the counsel of his will, and we mentioned we all have free wills to
make important decisions in our lives. God accepts those decisions we
make, and weaves them into our lives for our good-even if we choose
poorly, wrongly, or mistakenly. Like a master carpet weaver, he takes a
strand of thread that seems to have been woven in the wrong place, and
weaves it into the whole to produce something beautiful-a perfect design.
He takes our free-will decisions, combines them with free-will actions of
other people, and makes them all work for good in every person's life.

God has everything firmly in his control. Although we don't always
understand how he does this, or why he lets what look like bad things
happen to us, we can take comfort that he acts based on his great love for
us.

A Fresh Perspective

The world's events-those things now taking place in America,
Afghanistan, and Pakistan-are bigger than we are. But when we consider
that they seem to be totally out of anyone's control, we need not despair.
Instead we can take comfort that our responsibility is to do those actions
that we know are right to do, and trust that God is dealing with the
entire complex situation. Not only that, but God, as we get to know him,
will show us more and more what we are to do with our lives-his special
plan that is unique for each of us. This plan will be useful or uplifting
in some way for others, even while it is fulfilling for us. He who made
the universe knows very well what each unique individual is best suited to
accomplish in it. On the other hand, if we don't get to know God, we will
certainly miss out on his plan for our lives. But as we seek to know him,
he will reveal his plan to us a bit at a time-not more than we can take
in, but small bits of direction just as we need them.

So do you or I know what will happen in Afghanistan and the Middle East,
and how this will affect the entire world? We can't know this-but we can
know the comfort and peace that comes when we reflect on the truth that
God does know-and is permitting and guiding-what will happen. He will
fashion different men's and women's actions into his overall good plan for
every one of our lives. We can rest in that reality-and seek to know the
God who is working in our lives for our good.

1. "Silly Question: Support the Palestinian Authority or Hamas?"
by William Pfaff, International Herald Tribune, 14 December, 2001.